Oakland

Oakland police officials to address department's pursuit policy

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Oakland police commissioners held a town hall Wednesday to let the public weigh in on the department’s pursuit policies. Velena Jones reports.

Oakland police commissioners held a town hall Wednesday to let the public weigh in on the department's pursuit policies.

The town hall comes nearly three weeks after Gov. Gavin Newsom publicly called out the Oakland Police Commission and promised to take away additional California Highway Patrol help if the city did not widen their pursuit policies.

"We have all collectively given our commitment to work with city leadership to make smart changes and to give OPD the tools that they need to deter crime in our city," Oakland Police Commission Chair Ricardo Garcia-Acosta said.

Current policy implemented in 2014 prohibits officers from chasing anyone unless they are known to have a firearm or are suspected of a violent crime. The new interim mayor is among those who support a change.

"We want to ensure that safety is paramount in this, but we also want to make sure that people don’t come to our city and violate our laws because they think they can get away with it. So my message to the police commission is urgency," said Kevin Jenkins, who is serving as interim mayor.

Community advocates who believe criminals are exploiting the current rules rallied ahead of Wednesday's meeting. They urged the commission to take action quickly.

Meanwhile, critics argue the policy is in place for a reason and should stay as-is.

"We have tied the hands of good cops and have prevented them from doing their job to protect the public," said Tuan Ngo with Asians Unite. "We really desperately need a change in this policy to protect businesses and to restore public safety."

"There's a reason that the current policy is what it is because it was harming people before," said Cat Brooks with APTP. "So people fought, organized to get the current policy in place. It's not willy-nilly, it's because we've already done this, it didn't work, and it hurt people."

California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited Alameda County on Friday, Dec. 27, to discuss the ongoing crime crackdown in the East Bay.

The current policy was prompted by an audit that found pursuits were causing too many crashes and injuries.

"All of these things have a potential impact on public safety have a potential impact on community and police trust. And those are the things that are particularly of interest," Garcia-Acosta said."

With a recent proposal from Oakland police Chief Floyd Mitchell in hand, the commission's chair said he is focused on exploring aspects of the policy.

That includes the current 50 per hour mile cap and language to allow chases in cases of sideshows and commercial burglaries. But the chair also said he wants to look into alternative solutions.

Garcia-Acosta also claims the decision is not ultimately up to the commission.

"To solely blame public safety and the ability for OPD to do their job to pursue criminals based off of a policy that we've never had a hand on has been short-sighted and it's not been appreciated,' Garcia-Acosta said.

The interim mayor said the process has to start with the police commission.

If the commission disagrees with the proposal, the debate can shift to the city council.

The Oakland Police Commission is set to vote on the proposal next week.

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